kitchen table software

• kitchen-table software
• kitchentable software

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kitchen table software (uncountable)

1. (dated, idiomatic, computing) Especially in the early years of personal computers, a set of computer programs developed by an entrepreneurial advanced amateur or self-employed professional computer programmer in his or her own home; software developed by a small business using the services of such programmers.
   • 1986, Personal computer, Software Communications, p. 91:

     So much for kitchen-table software being small potatoes.

   • 1987, Jimmy D. Lindsey, Computers and exceptional individuals, →ISBN, p. 54:

     However, the need to evaluate software before buying is no less important than in the days of the kitchen-table software developer.

   • 2003, Robin Miller, "The business of making Linux easier to use," linux.com, 8 Jan. (retrieved 8 May 2009):

     More and more vendors, from IBM to "kitchen table" software authors, seem to be heading in this direction.

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